Dr John Sharples
@jjsharples.bsky.social
Occasional historian of chess & chess-players
https://lancaster.academia.edu/JohnSharples
https://lancaster.academia.edu/JohnSharples
My fifth Sport in History article (2024) examined the history of de la Bourdonnais and McDonnell’s great chess match in the nineteenth century - ‘Still and dark assemblies’: the narrativised chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1834–1864 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
January 21, 2025 at 2:23 PM
My fifth Sport in History article (2024) examined the history of de la Bourdonnais and McDonnell’s great chess match in the nineteenth century - ‘Still and dark assemblies’: the narrativised chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1834–1864 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
My fourth Sport in History article ‘The machine being set in motion’: the automaton chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1839–1851' (2021), examined leisure & sporting practices, and themes of curiosity & respectability, in relation to the famous automaton: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
‘The machine being set in motion’: the automaton chess-player in urban and literary culture, 1839–1851
This article examines nineteenth-century chess-player and writer George Walker’s essay ‘Anatomy of the Chess Automaton’ (1839). Walker’s writing frequently highlighted how spaces of urban modernity...
www.tandfonline.com
January 16, 2025 at 11:37 AM
My fourth Sport in History article ‘The machine being set in motion’: the automaton chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1839–1851' (2021), examined leisure & sporting practices, and themes of curiosity & respectability, in relation to the famous automaton: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
My third Sport in History article (2018) considered George Walker’s historical-fiction ‘A Night in York – A Chess Adventure of 1842’, in which the author imagines a night-time meeting with a ghostly medieval chess-player 👻 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
George Walker and the ghost: the chess-player in urban and literary culture, 1840–51
This article aims to contextualise the nineteenth-century chess-player and writer George Walker’s involvement within urban and literary culture. Continuing research published in two recent Sport in...
www.tandfonline.com
December 17, 2024 at 3:33 PM
My third Sport in History article (2018) considered George Walker’s historical-fiction ‘A Night in York – A Chess Adventure of 1842’, in which the author imagines a night-time meeting with a ghostly medieval chess-player 👻 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
My second Sport in History article (2017) considered nineteenth-century blindfold chess-play and its intersection with themes of (again) respectability and monstrosity: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘This dark world’: the blindfold chess-player in Victorian literary and urban culture
George Walker's March 1840 article for Fraser's Magazine entitled ‘Chess Without the Chess-Board’ outlined the history and method of blindfold chess (or chess-play without sight of the board and pi...
www.tandfonline.com
December 3, 2024 at 6:55 PM
My second Sport in History article (2017) considered nineteenth-century blindfold chess-play and its intersection with themes of (again) respectability and monstrosity: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
My first article (Sport in History, 2015) looked at George Walker's essay on the Café de la Régence and the way chess-play could become entangled with themes of respectability: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘I am a Chess-player’: Respectability in Literary and Urban Space, 1840–1851
Between 1840 and 1851, amateur and professional chess became an increasingly prominent part of the Victorian leisure world. A rapid rise in both literary output on the game and the number of places...
www.tandfonline.com
November 30, 2024 at 11:06 AM
My first article (Sport in History, 2015) looked at George Walker's essay on the Café de la Régence and the way chess-play could become entangled with themes of respectability: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
My long-term research project is an examination of George Walker's 'Chess and Chess-Players' essays (1850). So far I've written five articles for Sport in History on the Café de la Régence, blindfold chess-playing, the automaton chess-player, a ghostly chess-player, & on how chess-play was recorded.
November 26, 2024 at 10:24 AM
My long-term research project is an examination of George Walker's 'Chess and Chess-Players' essays (1850). So far I've written five articles for Sport in History on the Café de la Régence, blindfold chess-playing, the automaton chess-player, a ghostly chess-player, & on how chess-play was recorded.
In the spirit of new beginnings, I’ll try to summarise my research on chess & chess-players over the next few days & post links to it. To start, here’s my academia page: lancaster.academia.edu/JohnSharples
John Sharples | Lancaster University - Academia.edu
PhD in History from Lancaster University jjsharples@live.co.uk
lancaster.academia.edu
November 20, 2024 at 4:19 PM
In the spirit of new beginnings, I’ll try to summarise my research on chess & chess-players over the next few days & post links to it. To start, here’s my academia page: lancaster.academia.edu/JohnSharples
Staying warm 🧤
November 19, 2024 at 11:43 AM
Staying warm 🧤
Feel Good Club in Manchester
November 16, 2024 at 10:30 PM
Feel Good Club in Manchester
Here’s some more info on my 2017 book ‘Minds, Machines, & Monsters: A Cultural History of Chess-Players’ - manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784994204/
Manchester University Press - A cultural history of chess-players
A cultural history of chess-players - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of A cultural history of chess-players by John Sharples
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
November 14, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Here’s some more info on my 2017 book ‘Minds, Machines, & Monsters: A Cultural History of Chess-Players’ - manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784994204/
Reposted by Dr John Sharples
The BSSH 2025 Annual Conference will be held at the University of Ulster (www.ulster.ac.uk/campuses/bel...). It runs from 20th to 22nd August 2025, and the call for papers will be announced in the new year.
Please contact Katie Taylor at katie.taylor02@ntu.ac.uk for further information.
Please contact Katie Taylor at katie.taylor02@ntu.ac.uk for further information.
Belfast
Ulster University Belfast is situated in the artistic and cultural centre of the city, the Cathedral Quarter.
www.ulster.ac.uk
November 4, 2024 at 10:14 AM
The BSSH 2025 Annual Conference will be held at the University of Ulster (www.ulster.ac.uk/campuses/bel...). It runs from 20th to 22nd August 2025, and the call for papers will be announced in the new year.
Please contact Katie Taylor at katie.taylor02@ntu.ac.uk for further information.
Please contact Katie Taylor at katie.taylor02@ntu.ac.uk for further information.
Anybody can now read my new article on the history of de la Bourdonnais and McDonnell’s great chess match in the nineteenth century - ‘Still and dark assemblies’: the narrativised chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1834–1864 #chess #history t.co/EQgWqMAIkR
https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2024.2405135
t.co
November 12, 2024 at 6:54 PM
Anybody can now read my new article on the history of de la Bourdonnais and McDonnell’s great chess match in the nineteenth century - ‘Still and dark assemblies’: the narrativised chess-player in urban & literary culture, 1834–1864 #chess #history t.co/EQgWqMAIkR
Lancaster Castle
November 12, 2024 at 1:05 PM
Lancaster Castle